Tesla is certainly one of the most well
known companies in the all-electric vehicle market. The company
produces the Tesla Roadster that is a green sports car. The vehicle
is one of the most attractive and desirable electric vehicles on the
market and boasts some of the best EV performance and mileage
around.

One of the keys to improving the driving distance of
the Tesla Roadster is to improve the battery packs in the cars. Tesla
uses round 18650 format batteries like those found in consumer
electronics whereas most electric vehicle are powered by prismatic
cells that are flat. Tesla and Panasonic have announced that they
will be teaming
up on batteries for the Tesla Roadster and the future Model S
battery packs.

Tesla's JB Straubel said, "Our
collaboration with Panasonic will accelerate the development of next
generation EV cells, enabling Tesla to further improve our battery
pack performance."

Panasonic is one of the largest
producers of batteries in the world. Panasonic, however, will not be
the exclusive provider of batteries to Tesla – Tesla will continue
to source cells from a variety of sources.

Panasonic's Naoto
Noguchi said, "Being selected by Tesla to provide cells for
their current and next- generation EV battery pack is a tremendous
validation of Panasonic's nickel-based chemistry and the extensive
investments Panasonic continues to make in lithium ion R&D and
production."

The Model
S is the Tesla sports sedan that is set to hit the market
sometime in 2011. When the vehicle was first announced in March 2009,
Tesla claimed it would have a range of up to 300 miles and would be
able to hit 60 in 5.5 seconds and carry seven passengers. The current
Roadster managed to eke out a distance
of 313 miles on a single charge in a test conducted in October of
2009.

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They do it, only with reduced range though. Base model has a smaller range while the top end model with the 300 mile range I calculated to be around 80k+ when pricing was first announced (although source I'm not sure where anymore...)